People Love Bitching
…Well, at least that is what I’ve discovered from a press release from the folks at the Spring Beer and Wine Fest. This year, for the third straight year, Astoria Brewing Company‘s Bitter Bitch Imperial IPA has garnered the vote of the people as best beer at the festival. Current ABC head brewer Bolt Minister has maintained the Bitch as the brewery’s flagship brew (along with an assortment of killer new recipes including some special Belgians) and this, once again has proven to be a wise decision. Upon arriving at ABC, Minister admits to dialing down the hops a bit, and people spoke up saying “‘Where did the hops go?’ My first Bitter Bitch wasn’t up to snuff for the community.” Soon after, Minister cranked the recipe back up to where it needed to be. Says Minister “To tell you the truth, I dig a good IPA, but it’s not the beer I go to always. I’ll go for a pale ale or a lighter style of beer and I kind of go for more balanced beers, too. So, an imperial IPA is not my favorite beer to make. I feel a little gluttonous making it just because it’s addition after addition and primary dry-hopping and dry-hopping in the secondary. It is fun, but I like a more balanced beer.” The monstrously hoppy 130+ IBU Bitch features Summits, Cascades, Centennials, and a touch of Amarillos for immense seasoning. At Wet Dog Cafe where Minister’s beers are brewed and served, a special blend of Bitter Bitch and the newly retooled Solar Dog IPA combine to make a more balanced Solar Bitch. Woof woof.
Congratulations, Bolt and Astoria Brewing!
About The Author
Angelo
Angelo grew up in Maine and is proud to call New England his original home. Cascadia is now his home. He fell in love with great beer in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. He has been a correspondent for the Portland Tribune's Guest on Tap column, LivePDX.com, and has been featured in publications such as Beer Northwest and PDX Magazine. Angelo also has a great interest in independent music, and has been a booker and organizer for shows around the Portland under the name Pop Tomorrow! Angelo garnered much knowledge regarding beer from his experiences homebrewing, working at Belmont Station, Pyramid Brewing, Upright Brewing, By the Bottle, Beer Revolution, Olde Depot Public House, Falling Sky Brewing, Cascade Brewing, and from many many knowledgeable, passionate, and loving people along the way. It is Angelo's mission to bring "infotainment" and "edumation" to the readers of this website. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to contribute, please contact me at angelo@brewpublic.com
No offense to Astoria Brewing but I bet if you did a blind taste test the scores would directly correlate with each beers IBU’s. Or maybe not even the real IBU’s but if you categorized them simply by their IBUs. The bitter bitch is pretty good but not that good, especially considering its a completely different recipe then the first year it won and maybe even the 2nd.
I just got done studying for the BJCP exam and the question of maximum Human IBU detection came up in our review class.
After everyone researched the question, we all came with, the human palette can’t really detect over 100 IBUs and that’s probably too high.
According to different sources the upper limit of human perception lies somewhere between 50-85 IBUs depending on your source. The actual solubility limit of iso-alpha acids is in the 100 IBU range.
We came to the conclusion anything over about 90 IBU’s is probably a waste of money for the hop bill.
I can re-look for sources if needed?
Hey Bucktooth,
yes I am well aware of those studies. Which is why I think just simply labeling a beer by their IBU’s affects peoples judgement. Even if they cant taste it.
Your probably right.
Like I said, people love bitching…